FORT WORTH, Texas – Danica Patrick finished three laps down in 28th in the NRA 500 on Saturday as she couldn’t build on last week’s strong Sprint Cup finish at Martinsville Speedway.

Patrick, who started next-to-last in the 43-car field, had a typical weekend where she fell a lap behind early but by midway through the race appeared to get more comfortable on the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway.

Danica Patrick finished 28th in the NRA 500. (AP Photo)

It was the fifth finish of 25th or worse in seven races this year for Patrick, who ran 10 Cup races last year and is in her first full-time Cup season. She was coming off a 12th-place run at the tough Martinsville short track a week earlier.

“It was a tough night,” Patrick said. “The car was just kind of all over the place at the beginning. (The) guys kept working on it all night, and we made some improvements on it.

“The pit crew did a good job on the stops. We just need to get better on the 1.5-mile tracks. I know the team will keep working at it. We’ll see what we can do (next week) in Kansas.”

The Stewart-Haas Racing driver remained 26th in the Sprint Cup standings.